Fashions , Popular music influenced fashion’s direction in 2013 as runway presentations and museum exhibitions celebrated the style of iconic performers and definitive musical genres. As a result, most designers, luxury brands, mass-market retailers, and glossy magazine editors looked beyond the confines of the Hollywood film industry to collaborate with pop, hip-hop, and rock stars. The fashion industry harnessed the dominant Internet presence of the music business and also leveraged the colossal global fan base of seminal performers through design collaborations. Meanwhile, big-name entertainers expanded their appeal by reaching out to style-conscious consumers.

Rihanna’s fast-fashion line for River Island was showcased during London Fashion Week in February …

Doug Peters—PA Photos/Landov

Tom Ford presented his vibrant mix of textures and patterns in his eye-popping collection during …

Several designers featured handbags that resembled a type of garbage bag. This Lanvin creation …

Jacques Brinon/AP Images

Rihanna for River Island was a 1990s-inspired fast-fashion line that the Barbadian recording artist conceived with Adam Selman (her costume designer) as a series of three limited-edition collections for the British high street retailer. It was launched on February 16 with great fanfare during London Fashion Week. “There was no catwalk, the models appeared on a giant scaffolding-like structure. … As the last look appeared so did Rihanna,” reported Style.com.

Two days later Tom Ford presented his autumn-winter ready-to-wear collection, which was also inspired by Rihanna. The first full-scale show Ford had staged for his signature women’s wear line included a powerful mix of garments: suits and coats rendered in deep purple and fuchsia patchwork suede, as well as bomber jackets, jersey dresses, and sinuous skirts emblazoned with a vibrant, beaded Pop art-style starburst motif.

Refined Ford menswear—which Justin Timberlake flaunted on the cover of his third studio album, The 20/20 Experience, in the video promoting the album single, “Suit & Tie,” on his 20/20 Experience World Tour, and at his October 2012 nuptials to actress Jessica Biel—lent the charismatic singer-songwriter a more polished image. Ford told Women’s Wear Daily that he was “flattered” after his longtime client Jay Z paid homage to him with “Tom Ford,” a track on Magna Carta Holy Grail, the rap artist’s 12th studio album.

Hedi Slimane set the pace tackling his new role as artistic director of Saint Laurent Paris by unleashing his renegade spirit, which was seemingly informed by the rebelliousness that characterized his primary influence, rock music. To eradicate the venerable brand’s staid image, Slimane shifted its design studio from Paris to Los Angeles—the pop music industry capital—where he had worked since 2007 as a photographer documenting the scene. Fashion critics regarded the move as a “rebuff to the ascendancy of French design.” Slimane also rebranded the house, removing “Yves,” the first name of its founder, from its title. That move upset traditionalists, prompting a media backlash along with the manufacture of T-shirts featuring the logo “Ain’t Laurent without Yves.” Saint Laurent Paris terminated its business dealings with Colette, the influential Paris concept store, after Slimane discovered that Colette was carrying the parody T-shirt. Those T-shirts spoofing Chanel, Céline, and Comme des Garçons, among other labels, remained for sale, however, and emerged as a street fashion trend.

Slimane’s controversial “skinny” tailoring signature—which he originated in his former role as creative director of Dior Homme— defined the series of “Le Smoking” suits (the original tuxedo for women conceived in 1966 by Yves Saint Laurent) that opened his anticipated show. Raf Simons, Christian Dior’s creative director, similarly commenced his spring-summer ready-to-wear presentation with “smokings,” and the mink-trimmed “Birkenstock-like sandal,” which Céline’s models wore with an oversized variation of the classic, became a sensation.

Nevertheless, Slimane upstaged them all. A wide-brimmed black felt hat that topped suits and billowing peasant gowns at Saint Laurent Paris sold out on Net-a-Porter and was classified as “the accessory of the season” by London’s Evening Standard newspaper. American Apparel later produced a version for autumn-winter. Buyers from major department stores also championed the meticulous tailoring and accessible style of Saint Laurent Paris. “The focus was very much on the cut, fit and fabrication,” said Marigay McKee, chief merchant of London’s Harrods department store, after the show. (McKee was later appointed president of Saks Fifth Avenue, after the department store was acquired by Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Co.)

The basic black dress mode was also in keeping with the spirit of functionality and emerged as a dominant sartorial theme owing to the uncertainty governing the global economy. Luxe casual separates, which though costly were not prohibitively so (like the “high-end tees” and “couture sweatshirts” produced by Kenzo, Givenchy, and Norma Kamali), became coveted. Highlighting the popularity of athletic-inspired footwear, Love Natalia, a fashion story in the September U.K. edition of Harper’s Bazaar, featured model Natalia Vodionova sporting Nike, Reebok, and Puma running shoes with expensive ready-to-wear fashions. Up-and-coming musicians as well as legendary entertainers who were enlisted as advertising representatives for luxury brands were ideally suited to enliven such quotidian merchandise. American singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani fronted Vogue’s January issue wearing Saint Laurent Paris from head to toe. (She was also among a trio of performers to appear on the magazine’s cover, along with Beyoncé and Katy Perry.) Claire Boucher, the 25-year-old Vancouver musician known as Grimes, performed at a New York City party celebrating the May relaunch of the Versus-Versace collection by London’s J.W. Anderson and produced menswear T-shirts for Saint Laurent Paris. A lineup of ’90s rock stars, including Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, and Kim Gordon, starred in the “Saint Laurent Music Project,” Slimane’s advertising campaign integrating his autumn-winter collection, which was influenced by California grunge. Variations of the gilded robotic helmets concealing the identity of Daft Punk, who were clad by Slimane, also proliferated as the French electronic duo wielded them in a flashy video promoting their hit single “Get Lucky,” which emerged as the feel-good anthem of the summer.

Meanwhile, “David Bowie is”—a major retrospective at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) celebrating the “shifting style and sustained reinvention” over five decades of British entertainer David Bowie’s career—included the standout display of 60 costumes that he had assumed during his glam-rock heyday to portray fictional characters upon whom his concept albums were based. The exhibit, sponsored by Gucci—whose creative director Frida Giannini had always acknowledged Bowie’s flamboyant androgynous style as a major inspiration to her work—was sold out during its five-month stay (prior to commencing a global tour) and proved the fastest-selling event ever staged at the V&A. A limited-edition LP produced in translucent red vinyl of The Next Day, Bowie’s critically acclaimed 24th studio album (released unexpectedly in January), and its official T-shirt were produced by Bowie’s longtime friend designer Paul Smith. In November the commemorative exhibit “Hello, My Name Is Paul Smith” opened at London’s Design Museum. David Bowie Is All Yours, a retail zone within London’s Selfridges department store, offered vintage and contemporary designer clothing evoking Bowie’s gender-bending glamour. In October BBC History magazine named Bowie the “best dressed Briton” in history. The performer also ventured into the realm of fashion film.

An elaborate method of communication flourished whereby directors conceived narrative-driven short films communicating a luxury brand’s products and values. An array of labels produced them for TV and YouTube to generate a new audience for their work. Bowie performed “I’d Rather Be High,” from The Next Day, in the first TV advertising campaign produced by Louis Vuitton (LV). The 90-second work, by Greek French director Romain Gavras, captured a decadent masked ball set in a Venetian palazzo showcasing the LV Vivienne handbag. Walking Stories—an eight-episode romantic comedy set in Florence, Los Angeles, and Shanghai and directed by Luca Guadagnino for Salvatore Ferragamo—was praised as the brand’s “most ambitious fashion film venture yet.”

The Great Gatsby, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s epic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, demonstrated Catherine Martin’s (Luhrmann’s wife) knack for producing period costumes with a contemporary twist. Martin collaborated with Brooks Brothers to conceive suits for the film’s male stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, as well as Jazz Age-inspired menswear launched upon the film’s May release. Tiffany & Co. also worked with Martin on the making of Art Deco-inspired jewels for actress Carey Mulligan’s Daisy Buchanan as well as an opulent retail collection featuring unusual pieces embellished with freshwater cultured pearls that proved in sync with a trend for such accessories. Mulligan’s onscreen wardrobe also featured looks inspired by archive pieces by Prada and Miu Miu, who also designed 40 costumes for two of the film’s party scenes.

PUNK: Chaos to Couture—the spring exhibition staged at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute—explored the influence on high fashion of the “do-it-yourself” makeshift dress mode of the radical 1970s music movement. The exhibit’s May 9 opening was heralded by autumn-winter collections referencing its subject matter. Vunk—Donatella Versace’s collection of sexy separates rendered in black, white, red, and yellow PVC (which referenced the garbage bags from which punks fashioned clothing), along with rock star T-shirts as well as slashed gowns—evoked a standout item in the exhibition—a long black dress embellished with a fringe of silver safety pins. The garment had been produced by Gianni Versace for his masterly 1994 punk collection. Vunk’s spike and nail bolt jewelry and Valentino Garavani’s studded clutch purse were among a wave of steel-embellished accessories categorized as punk-inspired. “Punk” scrawled in loopy script also patterned a thigh-grazing dress and car coat at Moschino’s Cheap and Chic.

Bold stripes defining mohair sweaters and mongolian lamb jackets emerged as a dominant sartorial motif. Singer Miley Cyrus, for example, appeared at the Marc Jacobs fall-winter show in February clad in a red-and-white striped skirt. Vogue’s June issue featured Cyrus in its monthly “It” Girl column and described her as a “refined rebel.” Cyrus cited Jacobs and punk as inspirations for her new look. In an effort to promote the October release of her hip-hop album Bangerz, the outfits that she wore in public became more provocative as the year progressed. The plan to portray Cyrus as a “new fashion icon” on Vogue’s all-important December cover was canceled after Anna Wintour—the magazine’s editor and newly appointed artistic director of Condé Nast—witnessed her racy routine at the MTV Video Music Awards while performing “Blurred Lines” with Robin Thicke.

The striped suit that Thicke wore became a popular Halloween costume, as it was likened to the garb that actor Michael Keaton had donned to portray the title character in Beetlejuice (1988). The dandified dress mode associated with 1950s rock and roll in Great Britain inspired several menswear collections produced for autumn-winter. Miuccia Prada produced drainpipe trousers and thick-soled brogues, and Christopher Kane’s collection featured ankle-grazing trousers and quilted bomber jackets.

Kering—the French multinational holding company formerly known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute—acquired a majority stake in Kane’s London-based label and also became a minority shareholder in the New York label founded in 2008 by French American designer Joseph Altuzarra. LVMH purchased a stake in the eponymous label of Maxime Simoens, a young French couturier favoured by Beyoncé, and also invested in the luxury footwear brand operated since 2005 by British shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood. The September publication of In My Shoes—Tamara Mellon’s memoir recounting her struggle launching the Jimmy Choo accessories empire—heralded the introduction of Mellon’s new eponymous fashion label.

Christopher Bailey succeeded Angela Ahrendts as CEO of Burberry in October when it was announced that she would spearhead strategy, expansion, and operations of retail and online stores for Apple Inc. A futuristic 12-page story in Vogue’s September issue highlighted the burgeoning link between fashion and technology. Models clad in sleek bold wintertime statement items—including Stella McCartney’s version of the oversized coat—portrayed “Glass Explorers.” The term was used by Google to describe a group of consumers who qualified to test Glass, computerized spectacles that connect to the Internet, prior to their imminent wide release.

As Smartphone and Web apps targeted at the fashionable proliferated, American designer and stylist L’Wren Scott launched “L’App.” This app was released to coincide with the launch of a Banana Republic collection that Scott produced for the holiday season and provided an intimate perspective of her design process by collating her accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter—all of which emerged as vital social networking sites for independent designers to promote their work. Scott also emerged as one of the year’s most high-profile designers after her actress clients Tina Fey (cohost of the 70th Golden Globe Awards) and Nicole Kidman (presenter of the best picture segment at the 85th Academy Awards) both appeared in her designs at the ceremonies. Scott’s boyfriend Mick Jagger, the founder and lead vocalist of the Rolling Stones, also provoked a media frenzy by appearing at her side at a series of high-profile events promoting her ventures, including the December 2012 launch of her Barneys New York Designer Fragrance; the two shows that she staged during London Fashion Week; the annual Serpentine Gallery Summer Party, which Scott hosted; and the Women of the Year Awards presented by U.K. Harper’s Bazaar. Scott won the Tastemaker Award.

Heralding the appointment of Marco Zanini as creative director of Schiaparelli, Christian Lacroix conceived a couture collection of 18 ensembles for the brand that were presented in July as a still-life exhibit at the Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Showcasing the painstaking workmanship inherent to the métier in a modern, individual manner, Lacroix conveyed the avant-garde spirit that iconic designer Elsa Schiaparelli had forged in her 1930s heyday, when she produced groundbreaking designs in collaboration with artists such as Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí.

John Galliano returned to fashion, working in Oscar de la Renta’s atelier to produce a well-received autumn-winter collection. During his appearance in June on the TV interview show Charlie Rose, he spoke candidly about the issues prompting his 2011 dismissal as creative director of Christian Dior and his own eponymous label. In response, the team at the obscure academic fashion journal Vestoj was inspired to produce Little John Talks, a 20-minute puppet show based on the interview. Galliano also worked as guest fashion editor on Fantasia, a Tim Walker fashion shoot starring Kate Moss; it appeared in British Vogue’s December issue. Former Spice GirlVictoria Beckham claimed the honour of guest editing the entire Christmas issue of French Vogue.

Fashion mourned the loss of a wave of innovators during the year. They included Ottavio Missoni, cofounder of the Milanese knitwear brand Missoni, and Rosalia Mera, cofounder of Zara, as well as couturier Jean Louis Scherrer, photographer Deborah Turbeville, and stylist Annabel Tollman. Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore!, an exhibition that opened in November at London’s Somerset House, paid tribute to the late British fashion icon’s inventive outrageous style.